


Sidelined

by Medie



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Character of Color, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-29
Updated: 2010-03-29
Packaged: 2017-10-08 12:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/75701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ship was in the middle of a battle and she was here, in Sickbay, trapped</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sidelined

**Author's Note:**

> Missing Scene for "The Doomsday Machine" in which Nyota was curiously absent.

The sudden lurching of the ship was Nyota's first clue. As she caught herself on the edge of the biobed, her eyes met Christine's. Chris was pulling herself up with one hand, the other gingerly touching her own forehead. They said nothing as the ship went to red alert, klaxons blaring and lights flashing, but they didn't need to. They'd been here before and, while they didn't know the particulars, they had an idea how things had gone.

She'd halfway expected it. Neither of them had missed McCoy's sudden exit nor the fact he'd been equipped for an away mission. Away missions meant Jim and Spock. Jim, Spock, and McCoy meant trouble.

Nyota's stomach knotted with a pain that had nothing to do with her healing wounds. Not to be outdone, however, said wounds made their presence known and she hissed with pain. "Breathe," Christine said, at her side in an instant.

Doing her best to do as instructed, Nyota trusted Chris to guide her back onto the bed. Christine's hand darted out, plucking a hypospray from the bedside table. A hiss and then the pain was easing.

Breathing easier, she tried to relax, but the shuddering of the deck beneath them made that difficult. The ship was in the middle of a battle and she was here, in Sickbay, trapped.

The frustration hurt worse than her injuries. Her gaze moved from Christine to to the rarely used reader beside her.

"Don't even think about it," Chris warned. She pushed the console back out of reach with one hand, the other picking up a tricorder with the other. "You're in no condition to be worrying about the bridge."

"I'm not," Nyota said with her most innocent of smiles. "I just thought -- "

"You'd check in with Karen?" Chris finished. She snapped the tricorder shut. "A: Karen Palmer is the best officer in your department, she doesn't need you riding herd on her, and B: You're still recovering from major surgery, _Lieutenant_, are under doctor's orders to rest, and -- " her voice softened " -- I'm sure the captain is _fine_."

Nyota's cheeks heated. "I'm sure that he is." She didn't bother denying the subtle implication in Christine's voice. The number of people on the Enterprise who had any inkling that the relationship between Nyota Uhura and James Kirk went anywhere beyond the purely professional could be counted on one hand with plenty of fingers left to spare.

Christine happened to occupy space on one of those fingers.

The ship lurched again, the light above the door flashing red, and Nyota fixed a stern look on her friend. "I'm also sure the ship isn't," she said. "I need to know what's going on, Christine, and I need to know _now_." She didn't need reports from the bridge to know something was wrong, with Jim as well as the ship, instinct was screaming at her. She trusted Karen to handle things on the bridge, Karen could and would do well, but Nyota had an entire department to concern herself with.

Christine hesitated and, for a moment, Nyota thought she'd refuse. By rights, Chris didn't have to do a damn thing that she was asking. She was a department head, true, and therefore ranked her, but she was also a patient and Christine had the final say. Nyota could try an appeal to one of the other doctors, but she knew how that would go.

Officially, Leonard McCoy had no designated assistant CMO, but unofficially Christine Chapel filled that role and no one, Nyota included, would dispute it.

"Chris," she said, softening her voice. "Please."

Christine bit her lip, then sighed. "Len will have my head over this," she said, even as she reached for the reader, moving it closer to Nyota's bed.

Firing up the station, Nyota grinned. "Who said we're going to tell him?"


End file.
